: How One Ladakhi Woman Kept Kargils AIR Station Running, Despite Enemy Shelling! #IndiaNEWS #Ladakh One evening in June 1999, during the ongoing Kargil War, the engineers at All India Radio (AIR) Kargil

How One Ladakhi Woman Kept Kargils AIR Station Running, Despite Enemy Shelling! #IndiaNEWS #Ladakh
One evening in June 1999, during the ongoing Kargil War, the engineers at All India Radio (AIR) Kargil ran away due to the excessive shelling in and around the station, even though their broadcast was scheduled for 5 p. m.
Amidst all the chaos, Tsering Angmo Shunu, Station Director, AIR, Leh and Kargil calmly called up the Brigade Commander at Kargil to help her with the broadcast. He directed a few soldiers her way, who helped AIR Kargil start their generator, which eventually allowed their broadcast to commence at 5 p. m.
The role of AIR during the war was critical in preventing the spread of any enemy propaganda or baseless rumours floated by Radio Pakistan ranging from the number of Indian soldiers killed to false claims of Indian army choppers being shot down.
However, stationed there, Angmo was having none of it.
She not only continued broadcasting to counter the propaganda but also raised the morale of the soldiers by sending messages of encouragement to them. And when the Indian army needed people to assist their soldiers, she consistently shared the message and sent her 18-year-old son to help the army.
Broadcasting the News of the Kargil War
On 6 June 1999, Ladakhis tuned into news about the ongoing Kargil War on All India Radio (AIR). During the broadcast, however, there was a special announcement in Hindi.
(Translated from Hindi) The Indian Army needs porters to carry loads to the front. Please come forward to help; the country needs you, said Angmo.
In the following week, similar announcements were made on the radio requesting families to send their able-bodied sons to the Leh Polo Ground, where selections were being held. The announcement was made on the behest of Colonel Vinay Dutta, who had met Angmo the day before the first announcement was made.
He had explained to her that young men were being recruited to raise a Pioneer company for meeting the labour needs of assaulting battalions during the war.
Colonel Dutta told me that there were no roads in the mountains and that the Indian army did not have enough porters or mules to carry food, ammunition and other necessities to the battlefront. He asked me if I could help by asking Ladakhi boys to volunteer for the task. I assured him I would do everything I could, she told the author Rachna Bisht Rawat for her book Kargil: Untold Stories from The War, which was published last year.
Every morning, she would tell her listeners, The Indian Army is fighting for us; it is our turn to help them in the middle of her scheduled broadcasts.
Sending Her Own Son to Volunteer
Born into a large family engaged in farming in Leh district, Angmos father was a Naib Tehsildar. After studying upto middle school in Leh, she moved to Kashmir.